Star Sailor
by claudiastar
Summary: Rose's little Sister has adventures of her own...Are the Tyler's just fated to become companions? Please review.
1. Prologue

Star Sailor.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor who or any related products. Please don't sue me!

I also have to acknowledge author Kates Master whose Story "The Life and Times" which is really good, gave me the idea for the plot of this.

Author's note: This fic is about the adventures Rose's sister has with another Doctor in the Alt.!World. Its still in very baby stages, and I'm about to go away so there won't be updates for a while, but I'd love feedback on this and any ideas for what should happen next!

Prologue: The Infant Astronomer.

Amelia Tyler's earliest memory was of a family holiday in North Wales. She could see clearly herself aged about four in the middle of a freezing cold field after dark, riding on her much older sister's shoulder's. She could remember years afterwards the biting wind, and the smell of damp earth and most of all the stars, uncountable millions of them, great whirling patterns of light. Living in London stars were new and strange and exotic to her. "Can you see them Mia?" Rose had said, "the stars? Aren't they beautiful?" And then Rose had said something that stuck with her for the rest of her life. "They all have names you know, every single one of them. They're all different, and so far away!"

With her child's mind she struggled to comprehend that infinity of places, of space, and failed. But what she remembered was the light and the huge cold dance she had seen, and from that day on she wanted to reach them, to see them all close up; to learn their names.

* * *

Amelia was seven years old when she first heard about the Doctor. Her mother and father had been away for the night and Rose was left to look after her little sister. As Amelia wriggled down in bed she asked for what she was used to, a bed time story. Rose frowned and protested "I'm not good at stories Mia, really honestly sweetheart."

But Mia insisted "please Rose, please _please_?"

Rose pushed a hand through her hair. "Oh alright then! What do want a story about?"

"Stars!"

"Oh ok." Rose said slowly. "Once upon a time there was a girl, an ordinary girl just like you…or me, and she had such a lonely life, on and on, always the same. Then one day she met a man."

"What was he called?"

"The Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Exactly. And he took this girl on the most amazing adventures; she saw the farthest reaches of the universe with him. Because he had a space ship that could go anywhere, even back or forward in time. Once they went to planet where the sea wasn't water but something else, something multicoloured, they floated on it for hours. Another time they visited a planet with four suns, imagine that! The most incredible sunsets you've ever seen!"

"wow!"

"yeah."

"And the girl, was she happy with Doctor, didn't she ever get homesick?"

"Sometimes, but you know, he took her back to visit and he was all she needed really. He saved her life lots of times, whenever there were aliens after them."

"There were aliens?"

"Oh yeah, all kinds of aliens, Great green things and things that looked like ghosts and worst of all these great metal dustbin things with disintegrator rays. But the Doctor kept her safe from all of them…"

"I think that's enough for one night," said a voice from the doorway. Amelia looked up to see her Mum frowning at the two of them. She was about to protest when to her surprise Rose did it for her.

"Mum." She said quietly, pleadingly.

"Rose, please," Jackie replied. There was a long pause before Rose sighed, turned and kissed Amelia on the cheek and said "Goodnight sweetheart." Then she left the room.

* * *

For the next few years nevertheless the Doctor was the hero of Amelia's bed time stories, every time Rose put her to bed. She heard how he had defeated the Daleks, blown up Downing Street, saved the world from the Sycorax using a Satsuma, and faced a real live Werewolf. But the girl who travelled with him remained nameless and mysterious; until she was about ten and heard the end of the story.

In the end it wasn't even Rose who told her. It was Mickey. It happened one evening when they were all sitting around on the living room sofa watching the news, the whole family; Mum, Dad, Rose and Mickey. The President was announcing the prospective invasion of the Middle Eastern block. Rose put her head in her hands and groaned. "God it's all so stupid!" she said "what's the point of all this fighting. Don't they get there's much bigger threats out there? Sometimes I bloody hate this universe!" and she got up and slammed out of the room, leaving everyone frozen in shock. Then Mum and Dad got up and followed her.

Amelia turned to Mickey. "Why did she say that?" she asked, a little scared. "She sounded so…angry."

"She's not angry really sweetheart," Mickey said, obviously absorbed in his own thoughts, not really paying attention to her. "she's just sad about the Doctor."

"The Doctor! But he's, he's a story, Rose made him up…"Amelia said confused and frightened. Mickey turned to her, his face comically horrified.

"Oh God! Mia, I'm sorry, I forgot, you're not supposed to know, oh bloody hell."

Amelia's mind began working over time, connecting the dots, it explained…everything, why Rose was the way she was.

"You mean, its real, everything she told me since I was seven years old… is real?"

"Well, yeah. I guess so."

"And the girl, the girl in the story…is Rose?" she said slowly, struggling to understand it. "But I don't understand, why is she sad about him? Why does that mean she hates this universe?" She was frowning stumbling over words, struggling with the information that her big sister, who she's known all her life, was so much more than she seemed.

"There was an accident." Mickey said slowly, trying to work out how to explain void rifts and parallel universes to a ten year old. "Rose wasn't supposed to come here, to this universe, she wasn't born here."

"There's more than one?" Amelia put in sharply.

"Yeah…Yeah there is. There are lots of them actually. And Rose, she sort of, fell, into this one, by mistake. And the Doctor, he got left behind."

"Can't he come and get her back?"

"No, no he can't."

Amelia sighed and sank back into the sofa. "So that's why she's sad," she whispered. "Because she lost him."

"That's about right yeah," said Rose, who had come back into the room without their seeing. She looked close to tears. Amelia acted on pure instinct then. She jumped up ran to her sister and threw her arms around her waist. Rose hugged her back tightly. And Amelia could feel that her big sister was trembling.

* * *

Amelia grew up, just like everyone else. She went to secondary school, she turned thirteen. She liked physics, but hated chemistry. She liked English, but hated maths. At fourteen she had her first boyfriend. Will Carmichael from year ten. Right tosser as it turned out. The day she caught him snogging Annie Feltham in the girls' loos was also the day she heard about the Doctor again. She stayed in the park for hours crying and when she finally arrived home she heard Mum and Rose talking.

"I saw him today." Rose said.

"Who love?"

"The Doctor. Not my Doctor, obviously…" she heard Rose add quickly. "He doesn't even have the same face, but a Timelord, with a TARDIS, and he calls himself the Doctor. He just showed up at work. Helped us identify that round blue sphere. Apparently it's from a planet called Dageothea, its some kind of communications device."

"Is he…" Jackie began carefully "is he…with anyone?"

"yeah, this girl Grace, she's, she's a doctor. You know the real kind- white coat stethoscope, everything."

Amelia could here a trace of bitterness in Rose's voice. Suddenly she couldn't help it she pushed open the door.

"Mia!" said Mum in surprise. But Amelia just stared at Rose. All thought of Will Carmichael was suddenly gone from her head. "Rose" she said "what exactly is it you do? I mean as a job?"

* * *

And from that day on aliens were a part of Amelia's life, indirectly at least. Rose told her all about life at Torchwood, even took her to visit once. She had had the most amazing time, running around like a child in a sweet shop, demanding that Rose explain everything to her, and Rose had stood back and watched, grinning affectionately.

And normal life progressed too. Amelia went to Spain on her first Holiday without the whole family. She took A-Levels in Physics, History, Spanish and English. She got very drunk and made out with a stranger at her eighteenth birthday party.

She got three As and a B in her A levels. She and her mate Gemma took off to the family house in Wales for the weekend to celebrate. It was the first time she'd ever driven so far alone. That night she slipped out of the house after Gemma was asleep. She sat on a stone wall shivering and staring at the stars, they were so bright; so much brighter than in London, and so far away. The childhood memory of being there with Rose came back with a force, but now the stars had an extra meaning for her- the homes of strange, wonderful and sometimes terrifying things. She did something she had been doing more and more recently. She looked up and she prayed. She prayed very hard for…adventure.

She had no idea that a very big adventure was coming her way at high speed.

END PROLOGUE.


	2. Part 1

Episode One: The Luck of the Tylers

Part one: Ways and Means

The twentieth of August 2025 was a day that would stick in Amelia Tyler's memory for the rest of her life. Strangely enough though, it began in a perfectly ordinary way. Amelia woke up with at about 10:30 that morning with a headache that vaguely resembled the feeling one would have if being prodded by red hot pokers. She wished she had not let Gemma persuade her into that fifth drink. She rolled out of bed with a groan and crawled blindly into the shower. The streams of hot water helped a bit. She emerged feeling slightly more like a real person and less like a walking ball of pain. She dressed quickly, throwing on the first thing that came to hand, and then went to the full length mirror to inspect the damage. On the whole she thought it wasn't too bad. The bags under her large brown eyes were a rather livid purple, but that was the worst of it. She tugged her cropped brown hair, trying to make it appear slightly less wild and more rock chick. Her outfit was alright, white T-shirt and jeans, simple but it worked. It would have to do. She touched the cross round her neck once for luck then went down stairs.

Jackie Tyler was in the kitchen. She greeted her younger daughter with a bright smile. "Morning, Mia sweetheart, fancy some toast?"

Amelia's whole body protested strongly at the idea of putting food into when she was in this state, so she shook her head and said "No, thanks mum. Can I just have some coffee please?"

Jackie frowned, dissatisfied "I do wish you'd eat breakfast sweetheart. It's not good for you to skip such an important meal. You'll faint one of these days," She nagged affectionately

"I'll be fine just this once I'm sure, I'm really not hungry" Amelia replied with a smile. Jackie shook her head but turned to the sideboard and put on the kettle to make the coffee. A few minutes latter Amelia was presented with a cup of very hot, very black coffee. She sipped it blissfully. Jackie sat down at the table opposite her.

"Good night last night?" she asked. Amelia nodded.

"Any plans for today?" Amelia shrugged, and then decided to be more forthcoming.

"Shopping probably," she said. She was due to take up a place a Durham university in three weeks time, but there were still things she needed to buy, warm clothes and a lap-top among other things. The whole university thing still didn't seem real to her.

"Well since you're going out, I don't suppose you drop something off for Rose for me? She left her phone here last night, and you know she can't cope without it."

Amelia frowned. "But she'll be at work by now," she said.

"Well you can take it to her there then can't you."

"Mum, you don't just walk into Torchwood. It's a top secret organisation," Amelia said in exasperation.

"A top secret organisation that your sister practically runs, you're a Tyler. I'm sure you'll be fine."

Amelia rolled her eyes at the phrase "You're a Tyler." It was one she seemed to hear a lot. Strangely enough, the more she heard that she was a Tyler, the less she felt like one.

Mum however appeared to take this as agreement. "I'll just go and get the phone shall I?" she said.

* * *

About three hours later Amelia was standing in the fake marble entrance hall of the canary wharf tower arguing with a receptionist with a posh voice and a long nose.

"Rose Tyler." She said, irritated. "Check again."

"As I informed you madam, no Rose Tyler is listed as working in this building, in any department whatever."

"No she wouldn't be." Amelia grumbled under her breath, cursing her mother silently "you don't keep records of members of Torchwood."

She turned back to the receptionist with a very winning smile and a wheedling tone. "Well you must have seen her though. You know the one I mean, bottle blonde, curvy, really bad dress sense…" The receptionist continued to look blank. "No? Sure? Look I just want to drop off a phone. I'm her sister for goodness sake. Couldn't you just let me through to look for her?" This failed to provoke a response. It was obvious she was not going to get anywhere.

She was about to turn from pleading to threats when what she always afterwards refer to as THE EVENT (capitol letters) took place. A man in a rather shabby black overcoat, who she was sure hadn't been there a minute before leant on the desk and said in a bored drawl "What's the problem here? There are people waiting you know." Amelia turned furiously, about to tell this extremely rude stranger to wait his turn, when she caught site of his face, it was thin and bony with an oddly sensitive mouth that looked like it switch from laughter to fury in a moment and eyes that were somehow sad. Suddenly she couldn't shout; she smiled instead.

The receptionist meanwhile had decided to appeal to him as a voice of reason. "This young lady is attempting to gain access to unauthorised areas; she claims to have an appointment with a person who is not listed in my files, sir."

"Really? How difficult," he said in the same intensely bored voice.

"I just want to see my sister," Amelia said in grumpy indignation "Her name's Rose Tyler and I…"

At that point she was interrupted by the stranger who was suddenly not so bored. "Rose Tyler? You did say Rose Tyler?"

"Yes. My sister." Amelia repeated for the twentieth time, she was feeling annoyed again now. The stranger turned to her and looked her up and down with an uncomfortably piercing glance.

"You don't look like her sister," He said suspiciously "she must be nearly twenty years older than you."

"Second marriage." Amelia said shortly, well, it was technically true, and he was really very rude, and she was sure she didn't like him.. "And I do look like her. People just don't notice it because I don't do ridiculous things to my hair like she does."

The stranger glanced at her spiky cropped hair with an amused curl of the mouth, but then nodded. "Fortunately I also wish to visit those err… unauthorised areas." So he was a Torchwood employee, Amelia realised with sudden interest. He turned to the receptionist and put on a truly dazzling smile pulling out what looked like an identification card and showing it to her "It won't be a problem if you just let me and this young lady through will it?" he said sweetly.

"Not at all sir," the receptionist said in an oddly flat voice. Amelia couldn't help noticing that her eyes had also become slightly unfocused. But she wasn't going to question it because at that point the receptionist reached below the counter pressed a button and suddenly two doors Amelia hadn't noticed before hissed open in the wall behind the desk revealing a brilliantly lit, gleaming white corridor behind them.

"Thank you so much," the stranger said and strode behind the desk. In the doorway he turned round to the stunned Amelia and said "Are you coming my dear?" with a quick smile. Amelia nodded and darted behind the desk to join him.

They walked down the corridor together. He walked very fast. Amelia was forced to trot to keep up with him, which she thought very inconsiderate. Really he was infuriating. But she would be polite anyway. "Thanks for that, I thought I was going to be there all day" She said a little breathlessly.

"Not at all, my dear," he replied in that maddeningly superior tone.

"I don't know how you did it."

He smiled mysteriously "Ways and means, ways and means."

This was too frustrating, but she wasn't going to let him irritate her into being rude. Though the way he refused to look from side to side but kept his gaze fixed straight ahead was very disconcerting "I'm Mia, that is, Amelia Tyler, by the way," she told him in an attempt at friendliness.

"Pleased to meet you. I'm the Doctor, at your service of course."

And with those words her life changed. She remained convinced for the rest of her life she felt it shift around her. She stopped walking right there in the middle of the corridor, frozen to the spot. Here he was; the hero of her childhood stories, flesh and blood and right in front of her. She stared, possibly her mouth was open too.

He turned round to look at her, eyebrows raised. "You've heard of me?"

"You could say that." Amelia said, swallowing hard to un-stick her throat

"Good things I hope." He said with a grin.

Amelia felt suddenly wicked. Was this her chance to wipe that superior look off his face? "Well… I know you call yourself the Doctor, but no one is allowed to know your real name, ever. Probably something to do with a messed up childhood. You come from a distant planet called Gallifrey, which is inhabited by people called the Timelords, who have very advanced technology, but you don't spend much time there- messed up childhood again? You have a ship which is generally known as the TARDIS, using which you can travel to any point in the universe, in time as well as space. Generally you like to travel with people. What was the last one I heard about called? Grace?"

Now it was his turn to stare open mouthed and speechless with astonishment. "How… how did you know all that?" he stammered.

Amelia gave him her best mysterious smile "Ways and means Doctor, Ways and means."


End file.
